After seeing off Tanli, Bao Yuchun couldn't help but said: "Brother Lao, the Turks obviously have no good intentions when they ask us to go north to fight. Why did you agree to them?"
Lao Jianhua turned to look at Bao Yuchun: "Shuai Bao, do you think I want this? Ashina decided to go to war with Li Jiangyao. Regardless of success or failure, Li Bing will be the beneficiary. If at this time If we don’t try to contain him, I’m afraid he will really develop in the future.”
Bao Yuchun was about to speak when Lao Jianhua continued to sigh: "Since ancient times, we have conquered the north to the south and the west to the east. Why? Because of the advantage of terrain and population. Even though Li Bing's current strength is average, he occupies the As long as there is enough time in the North and the Central Plains, their military strength will eventually develop faster than ours. Therefore, we have to join forces with the Turks, or in other words, we have to take over Ashina's support and continue to delay and consume Li Bing’s army.”
Bao Yuchun is a famous general who is good at fighting, so he naturally understands this meaning, but he also has other concerns: "Let's not say for the moment whether the Turks will keep their promise and leave the territory of Shengtang from now on, just to attack the Eastern Capital. It’s absolutely impossible to do it with our current strength.”
"Who said we must attack Luoyi?" Lao Jianhua smiled faintly: "We only need to make a gesture of going north, and at most we can advance to Nanyang. As for the war, just let He Lianxiong do it. "
Bao Yuchun thought for a while and praised: "Brilliant! He Lianxiong is in the west, Li Bing is in the east, and we are in the south. If the three sides move at the same time, Li Bing will definitely find it difficult to keep track of the beginning and the end. In my opinion, Ma Hongjie's Southern Army We will definitely focus on preventing the Turks from attacking Luoyi, while Murong Xue, Chang Tao and others will deal with the King of Huaiyang. As long as we bluff, we can scare Li Bing to the point where he can't sit still."
"Yes, Commander Bao." A cold smile appeared on Lao Jianhua's face: "Our goal is to contain Li Bing as much as possible. If he doesn't come to fight, then we will take advantage of the opportunity to seize the north bank of the river such as Nanyang, Guangzhou, and Suizhou. If he divides his troops to fight us, then we will gradually retreat southward, giving He Lianxiong and Li Kuang a chance to win."
Bao Yuchun laughed loudly: "I can also use a trick to lure the enemy deeper and lead the pursuers into the ambush circle, so that they can never come back."
Lao Jianhua nodded approvingly: "That's right. As long as Li Kuang is exhausted by the three groups of people, we can develop more calmly in the south. From now on, regardless of whether Ashina sticks to his promise or not, we We can all compete with him with our strength.”
"Okay, that's it!" Bao Yuchun said: "Brother Lao, you mobilize the Xuanjia Army, and I'll summon the men of the Navy Army. We'll deploy immediately."
The news that the Xuanjia Army and Navy had begun to gather quickly spread back to Western Xinjiang. After Li Jiangyao and others learned about it, they immediately made a judgment: Lao Jianhua and the Turks had reached a secret agreement. The rebels' actions were most likely to contain the imperial troops so that the Turks could use their troops against the two passes.
The intelligence department's courier quickly sent this analysis from the Zhenjiang Army Headquarters to the Imperial Capital and Wuguan, and at the same time reminded them to strengthen their vigilance.
Li Jiangyao specifically pointed out that Lao Jianhua's actions were by no means isolated. The Turkic army located in Tongguan and Li Kuang entrenched in the Huaihe River might both attack and harass the imperial court from three directions.
Of course Murong Xue supported his good brother's judgment. He immediately made suggestions to Li Bing to rely on the city to defend in two directions, and then concentrate superior forces to attack the invading enemy in one direction.
After this road is completely resolved, look for opportunities to attack the other two enemy roads.
Li Bing and others basically agree with this strategy, but the only question is, who should we deal with first?
Turks? Li Kuang? Or Lao Jianhua?
According to Murong Xue's idea, the Turkic army was of course the first choice.
Only if the beating hurts the Turks and directly threatens the safety of Tongguan can it help distract Ashina Zhijin and reduce the pressure in the direction of Zijin Pass.
However, Gong Chengze raised objections.
His reason is very direct and simple: the Turkic cavalry is flexible and has a very strong impact, so it should rely on the city to defend it.
Among the three enemies, Li Kuang, the king of Huaiyang, is the weakest. If the Huaiyang army really dared to come, they would naturally pick this soft persimmon.
Faced with the different opinions of his two generals, Li Bing thought for a long time.
In the end, he neither listened to Murong Xue's suggestion nor adopted Gong Chengze's idea.
The target Li Bing chose was Lao Jianhua.
There are three reasons behind this.
First, since Bao Yuchun's navy blocked the river, half of the mountains and rivers of Shengtang were completely out of his control. The political power, land, wealth, and population of the south all fell into the hands of the rebels. Li Bing couldn't bear this matter.
Secondly, he was played and used by Xie Guang and Lao Jianhua, which eventually led to the tragedy of the dynasty being in danger. Now, the culprit Xie Guang is dead, but the insidious Lao Jianhua is still there. Li Bing couldn't bear this hatred.
Thirdly, if the Xuanjia rebels have been hiding in the south by virtue of natural danger, even if Li Bing wanted to deal with them, they would be out of reach. Now that the other side is taking the initiative to provoke us northward, it creates an opportunity for a decisive battle. Li Bing couldn't bear this situation.
Therefore, the young emperor decided to set up strong defense lines in the east and west directions with Luoyi as the center to resist possible offensives launched by the Turks and the King of Huaiyang. His main force was placed in the south to meet the Xuanjia rebels.
"Murong, I leave this battle to you." Li Bing ordered: "Ma Hongjie and the others have already said that they will only deal with the Turks, so the southern army is placed in the west to block the Turks; Chang Tao is stationed in Bianzhou, and he is responsible for guarding against them. Li Kuang, I think it’s safer to come here. You can lead my troops and teach Lao Jianhua, the traitor, a lesson.”
Murong Xue nodded and was about to agree, but Gong Chengze, who was standing aside, rushed to say: "Your Majesty, since I came to the Eastern Capital, I have been deeply favored by the emperor, but I have never been able to establish the merits of size. This betrayal The army is invading, and I also want to go into battle to kill the enemy. I hope your majesty will allow me to assist General Murong in destroying Xuanjia."
Li Bing smiled and said: "Well, since Chengze has the heart to serve the country, how can I disagree? Let's do this. You and Murong Xue will each lead an army and advance in two directions, so that they can take care of each other. .Murong, what do you think?"
Murong Xue was an open-minded person, so naturally she would not care about such things, and responded readily: "I am willing to cooperate with General Gong to fight against the Xuanjia rebels."
"Okay, I'm sure." Li Bing said loudly: "Of the 200,000 soldiers and horses currently stationed in Dongdu, you two will command 50,000 each, with Murong Xue as the commander-in-chief and Gong Chengze as the deputy commander-in-chief, and we will advance southward at the same time. In addition, let Dong Tianxing lead another 20,000 people to support you from the center and provide you with reinforcements at all times."
Murong Xue and others accepted the order and immediately started taking action. In less than three days, the 120,000-strong army was fully prepared and set off to the south.
According to Murong Xue's arrangement, his troops were positioned to the east, entering Yingchuan, heading south from Ruzhou, with the goal of Caizhou. Gong Chengze's troops and horses were located in the west, close to Ma Hongjie's defense area, passing through Yichuan and heading to Nanyang.
After the two groups of troops arrived at the designated location, they immediately set up a defense line to form a pincer-shaped system. Dong Tianxing's reinforcements were stationed at the southern foot of Wufeng Mountain between the two places.
These three locations are like a square triangle, and the area they face happens to be the line between Xiangcheng, Suizhou, and Guangzhou.
As soon as Lao Jianhua's troops landed on the north bank and headed towards Guangzhou, Suizhou, Murong Xue could immediately mobilize his troops to attack them head-on.
At the same time, Ma Hongjie's troops in Wuguan also began mobilizing for combat. Two hundred thousand infantrymen moved north and set up three lines of defense in Lingbao County, Luoning County, Yiyang County and Xin'an County between Tongguan and Luoyi, preparing to block Helianxiong's eastward advance.
Chang Tao of the Liaodong Protectorate led 70,000 elite troops to build a new defense system in the triangle area surrounded by Bianzhou, Songzhou and Chenzhou to guard against the Huaiyang King's army in the southeast.
At the same time, the imperial court of the Eastern Capital went to full strength and sent a large amount of stored grain, grass and weapons to the three front lines in a steady stream.
Following the first full-scale battle between all forces in the world at the beginning of the year 827 of the Holy Tang Calendar, about a year later, the fierce battle between the east and west fronts reappeared again.
The second comprehensive struggle between Shengtang and the Turks and rebels is about to begin.
Different from the previous battle where each had its own offense and defense, in this battle, Shengtang was on the defensive side in both the east and west battlefields.
The main Turkic forces moved in full force, preparing to attack Liangguan and Western Xinjiang.
He Lianxiong, Lao Jianhua and Li Kuang divided their troops into three groups and besieged the Central Plains area with Luoyi as the core from the west, south and east.
On the two battlefields, the total number of troops invested by the offensive side is estimated to be as high as 800,000, while on the defensive side, the nine legions of the Xinjiang Army are about 380,000, and Emperor Li Bing's troops are also around 390,000.
The offensive and defensive sides can be said to be evenly matched and indistinguishable.
As far as the overall strategic situation is concerned, the situation at hand is just as Li Jiangyao envisioned: the Shengtang army occupying a key position, regardless of Luoyi in the east or Zijin Pass in the west, does not need to rush to find the enemy to fight, it only needs to With complete defenses in place, you can simply wait for your opponent.
On the other hand, the Turks and rebels each had huge concerns and had to take risks and launch large-scale attacks before they could grasp the advantage.
In other words, as long as Shengtang can hold the front, the enemy's losses will increase exponentially and become further weakened.
By then, the opportunity for a strategic decisive battle will gradually mature.
Of course, the premise is that you can hold the front.
Compared to Zijin Pass and Shengyuguan, Li Jiangyao was more worried about the situation on the Eastern Front Central Plains battlefield.
The two levels of defense are simple and straightforward positional battles. As long as you have the determination to defend, it is not an exaggeration to say that one man can guard the barrier and ten thousand others cannot open it.
However, the situation on the Eastern Front battlefield was extremely complicated.
The landform there is completely plain, with the area open and extending in all directions. Although many cities are large in size and have complete defense systems, the enemy can also gallop around and weave in and out at will.
Therefore, it is more of a mobile battle over there.
This will be a huge and difficult test for the command system of the Shengtang Army.
